218      [from Upon Appleton House, to my Lord Fairfax]

XLVII.

And now to the Abbyss I pass
Of that unfathomable Grass,
Where Men like Grashoppers appear,
But Grashoppers are Gyants there:

5       They, in there squeking Laugh, contemn

Us as we walk more low then them:
And, from the Precipices tall
Of the green spir’s, to us do call.

XL VIII.

To see Men through this Meadow Dive,

10    We wonder how they rise alive.

As, under Water, none does know
Whether he fall through it or go.
But, as the Marriners that sound,
And show upon their Lead the Ground,

15    They bring up Flow’rs so to be seen,

And prove they’ve at the Bottom been…

…     LIII.

The Mower now commands the Field;
In whose new Traverse seemeth wrought
A Camp of Battail newly fought:

20    Where, as the Meads with Hay, the Plain

Lyes quilted ore with Bodies slain:
The Women that with forks it fling,
Do represent the Pillaging.

LIV.

And now the careless Victors play,

25    Dancing the Triumphs of the Hay;

Where every Mowers wholesome Heat
Smells like an Alexanders sweat.
Their Females fragrant as the Mead
Which they in Fairy Circles tread:

30    When at their Dances End they kiss,

Their new-made Hay not sweeter is.

LV.

When after this ’tis pil’d in Cocks,
Like a calm Sea it shews the Rocks:
We wondring in the River near

35    How Boats among them safely steer.

Or, like the Desert Memphis Sand,
Short Pyramids of Hay do stand.
And such the Roman Camps do rise
In Hills for Soldiers Obsequies.

LVI.

40    This Scene again withdrawing brings

A new and empty Face of things;
A levell’d space, as smooth and plain,
As Clothes for Lilly strecht to stain.
The World when first created sure

45    Was such a Table rase and pure.

Or rather such is the Toril
Ere the Bulls enter at Madril.

LVII.

For to this naked equal Flat,
Which Levellers take Pattern at,

50    The Villagers in common chase

Their Cattle, which it closer rase;
And what below the Sith increast
Is pincht yet nearer by the Beast.
Such, in the painted World, appear’d

55    Davenant with th’ Universal Heard.

LVIII.

They seem within the polisht Grass
A Landskip drawen in Looking-Glass.
And shrunk in the huge Pasture show
As Spots, so shap’d, on Faces do.

60    Such Fleas, ere they approach the Eye,

In Multiplying Glasses lye.
They feed so wide, so slowly move,
As Constellations do above.